Figure 4.

TGF-β helps T cells maintain a central memory phenotype, whereas the expression of TGF-β decoy receptors inhibits this effect without affecting proliferation

(A) Flow cytometry tSNE analysis of concatenated biological replicates shows a higher ratio of Tcm and lower ratio of Tem and TEMRA cells in control cells in the presence of TGF-β. Decoy receptor expressing ATCs are unaffected even at highest tested TGF-β concentrations. (B) Line graphs of each of the T cell subtypes over time confirms the lack of TGF-β-dependent maintenance of Tcm cells in GPI-ecto-TβRII-positive ATCs compared with WT and GFP control cells. (C) Proliferation is similar in all tested ATCs. Line graphs display the mean and SEM of 6 biological replicates. (D) Heatmap presentation of cytokine levels measured in cell culture supernatants after ATC culture in the presence of different concentrations of TGF-β. Cytokine secretion of most inflammatory cytokines are significantly reduced in control ATCs, whereas the expression of HA-GPI-ecto-TβRII has a protective effect. Heatmaps display the data of 6 biological replicates (statistical significance in Figure S4B).